Posted by Rebecca on Nov 4, 2009 in
digital marketing,
social networking I attended The Big Debate, an event run by BCU, The Post and The NEC Group, on Monday 2nd November, which attempted to inspire debate around the topic of ‘Whether the Midlands’ Creative Sector can revolutionise the UK economy’.
The larger conference atmosphere was broken down after the key note speakers, whom it is worth touching on - Charles Leadbetter was truly inspiring with his call to make the Midlands a ’safe haven for pirates’ – encouraging us as the Midlands Creative Sector to take in the renegades and the risky prospects and to celebrate what makes Birmingham different, not struggle to provide things that make it the same. I did however suffer an involuntary eye-rolling at the mention of pebbles and boulders. Yes, we are operating on a vast pebble beach, no the geology-driven analagy does not make it easier to navigate or understand!
Toby Barnes also brilliant and appeared to be very much along the same cognitive seam as I was (and it also appears that @peteashton and @paulbradshaw are) – JFDI.
Back to the debate, conference broken down into small debating sects on each table, headed up by BCU representative. I was on Table 18, which had a number of interesting bods all with great opinions about getting stuck in to creativity and digital (which are, as established, very different things). One person found the Birmingham scene very difficult to navigate and become involved with and in the end resorted to an MA as a way in. We agreed that it is cliquey and that the creative sector suffers the same issue as BCU itself – no central hub, instead 5ish demi-hubs scattered around the city, which, when one prospers (such as Fazeley Studios) automatically becomes less penetrable and more pedestal-like from the perspective of ‘everyone else’. This is not to bring down achievement anywhere in the city, just to say that it makes true cohesion quite difficult and what appears as a clique quite common to come by.
My gripe came when some members of the debate appeared to suggest that the answer lied in funding. They believe that the creative sector as well as the digital and therefore social enterprises of the city need central funding and backing, for one spokesperson to be nominated to speak for all and that without provisions to facilitate inclusion, training and unity the answer to the debatable question might be ‘no’.
Personally I don’t understand the desire to paint the WM creative sector (which in my mind is strong and expanding) as a weak link, requiring propping up from public sector funds. We are all supposed to be marketing/PR/digital experts so why not use our own abilities to do this job for ourselves and prove that we are unified, capable and a very viable sector even during recession by DOING it; not waiting for someone to give us permission to do it? I agree that social media surgeries, networking events and shared premises are a good idea – but they are already happening so lets build on that, not go running back for a hand out when we have a huge opportunity to champion pro-activity.
I also think cross sector conferences might be a good idea for the future. I’m not convinced innovation is ever going to happen by getting lots of media/digital/creative types in a room to talk about media/digital/creativity. Also feel there were quite a lot of people in the room getting frustrated with going to lots of events and seeing the same people rotating around the event circuit (like a carousel of ’social gurus’). In my mind it was a step in the right direction and will be made more valuable and interesting (ten-fold) by what happens next. Andrew Brightwell had some simple and therefore achievable and useful next steps to making Birmingham a pirate asylum that I think are key.
In the meantime, I will try to get on with JFDI and hope that between this powerful network of communicators we can’t turn some of our talent and focus to building up the Birmingham Creative Sector brand.
Tags: Birmingham, creative sector, creativity, The Big Debate
How it works:
Digg, Netscape and Delicious are just a few examples of social bookmarking tools, which allow users (us) to flag or ‘bookmark’ something of interest – from large corporate sites and news announcements to obscure blogs and the wandering thoughts of anyone who happens to have access to a computer. Other members of the site community then vote on them (it’s time sensitive, so after about 51 votes within 24 hours on Digg or 10 votes within 10 minutes on Netscape) your story can be catapulted to the stratospheric heights of the home page.
Use it to:
Drive. Lots. Of. Traffic. The catch? What you’re writing has to be of serious value, well-written and incredibly well seeded. Perfect for when you’ve written a timely, interesting and relevant article. If you can upload this and seed the link on all of your social platforms, including your blog and website, providing one-click access to rate your article, you’re sure of a major spike in traffic.
What you could get:
Impressions on your impressions. Engaged pairs’ of eyes at that. For someone to read your article and consider it worth putting their name to as a voter or commentator means that they more than likely actually read it (and it’s now immortalised in a massive repository of newsworthy content for more people to find, which sounds like a bit of a Brucey Bonus to me).
Tags: Delicious, Digg, new media, social bookmarking, social networking, Stumble Upon
How it works:
So there are thousands of other sites from which you can launch your message and participate in stimulating debate other than just your own website….but there aren’t a thousand extra hours in the day with which to complete the enormous task of staying abreast of the ever-evolving online community. So exploit your efforts by writing once and posting, tweeting or updating many times simultaneously on your different networks.
Use it to:
Claim back your life! As much as social networking is a fabulous exercise in brand building, lead generation, customer service, conversion and retention; there is other work to be done in the office, you know like actually developing the products and services you’re generating all this buzz around, strategising, finance plans, meeting humans face to face, that kind of thing. Between your feed burner and your aggregator you can live the life of a social entrepreneur, continuing to converse, provide information, have an opinion and stay up to date with everyone else’s news, as well as actually leaving the office before midnight.
What you could get:
An online footprint like a woolly mammoth. Big enough to make you known to a much wider audience and net people that can be drawn in to your social web (by cross-promoting your various channel appearances), ready for you to nurture and over-awe with your valuable wisdom. Enough said.
Tags: Aggregators, friend feed, gigya, ping.fm, social networking
Posted by Rebecca Sykes on Aug 6, 2009 in
marketing,
new media,
social networking How it works:
Linkedin is your 80’s rolodex…online. You create a profile to sell yourself (which should do the equivalent of a power suit and walnut desk for your online reputation), including all of your professional qualifications, experience, fields of interest and expertise; and then you add your contacts. As in everyone you know in a business capacity, who knows when a contact of a contact will become a vital link in your career path?
Use it to:
Link with people you know. Keep people informed about what you’re up to or looking to be involved with. But crucially, as with all networking, stay interested in what everyone else is doing too. Be part of other people’s chains – if you have a colleague who does freelance web design and know the Digital Marketing Manager of a firm you used to work for is looking for support with their new site, introduce them. Acts of altruism in this context propel you to the front of people’s minds and reciprocal connections inevitably come flooding in.
What you could get:
A widened net. As in MUCH wider. Wider than that which you could ever have cast in real life. Instead of ringing round old friends and colleagues for access to their rolodex when in need of an opportunity or referral, these people become your own contacts, to nurture as you see fit. The better you do this, the stronger your net and the greater your pool of resources becomes.
One thing to remember: nurture when you don’t need anything. Then when you do, connections are already established and not on an awkward ‘needy vs bestower of contacts’ basis.
Tags: business, contacts, corporate networking, employee network, Linkedin, social networking
